As soon as you zone in, summon anything you may need and buff up. Go talk to the Captain of the Watch, Tollis Kalmor. He will tell you to investigate the palace. Head west when you are done talking to him. Right before you hit the main door to the palace, a few mobs will ambush you. Take care of them and then head inside.

Once you’re inside, talk to Ona Mariden and ask her what is happening here. She will direct you further into the palace to retrieve the Stone to Flesh salve in the Archives. Go west to find the salve.

When you get to the Archives, you can talk to Fiona Darnel if you want further information. If you have Detect Secret Doors or True Seeing, use it in here. There are secret doors hidden within the bookshelves, and detecting these before they are opened by enemies will allow you to get the observation bonus. Be aware that fire inside the Archives sets off cold traps in the walls. Look out for the exploding kobold demolitionists and the exploding barrels, which will trigger these cold traps. A rogue can disable these traps and gain cold trap parts from them. In the far corner of the Archives there is a switch that will de-activate all the cold traps. Hit the switch or have a rogue disable the traps for the extra XP bonus. If you are looking for Ransack bonus, make sure you break all the objects in here. If you’re going for the “rescue the guards” optional, use the salve on the stone guard. The salve will be in a chest somewhere in the far end of the archives. It seems to move around some but should not be too hard to find.

Rescuing the stone guards will give you the optional XP bonus and the guards will help you fight any creatures in the immediate area. However, they will not follow you. So if you want to use them, turn them back to flesh as soon as you encounter them. This can be a great tool to use should you be struggling with this quest. The guards are not super tough but they will help in a fight.

Locations of Stone Guards

1 in the Archives

3 in the entrance to Lordsmarch Palace

1 on the upper balcony in the entry room of Lordsmarch Palace

3 in the Coin Lords Room area

1 in the final hallway full of Kobold Demolitionists

1 in the Mess Hall with the secret room

2 in the Final Boss Room

The next area is where the Coin Lords are being held. There are a handful of droaam warriors in here. Take care of them and then head upstairs. There are gnoll mages and bound elementals in the rooms with the Coin Lords. They can be difficult, so be ready for a tough fight. Take out the gnolls first.

Once you head up the stairs you can go into the first room. Be ready for the fight with the gnolls and the elementals. Once they’re taken care of, use the Stone to Flesh salve on the Coin Lord in the room. In the back of the Coin Lord’s room there are secret doors that lead to passages between the rooms. Using the secret passages, you can easily ambush the ambushers. If you go this route it does make it a lot easier to jump the gnolls, and you’ll get the observation XP bonus. These passages will also lead you to an extra chest. This chest will be in the southern area of the secret tunnels. The chest is locked, so bring a rogue or somebody with the Knock spell.

While freeing the Coin Lords, speak with Yorrick Amanatu. He’ll give you an extra optional to close the secret entrance into the palace that the Droaam forces are using. Once you’ve rescued all of the Coin Lords, it’s time to move on. Finish off any other wandering mobs here and head back to the north. Once all four elemental Mages are gone the whirlwind that was blocking the passage will be gone.

You’ll find yourself above the room you first entered. There’s a Shrine here and a few guards to rescue. If you didn’t free the guards below you can rescue these. There’s another door leading out onto the balconies overlooking the Lordsmarch Palace Courtyard. There will be a switch right in front of you. Make sure to flip it, rescue the nearby guard, and take care of the nearby the Droaam forces. This opens the gates and grants you access to the different parts of Lordsmarch Plaza upper areas.

There will be many mobs out in the plaza now and the captain will be gone. If you’re going for kills do one quick lap of the courtyard area.

To the south is the optional troll named Mangle that you can kill. But if you just want to continue the quest, head to the north area instead. Go up onto the balcony, kill the Droaam and head inside.

Kill Mangle the Troll: There is a handful of mobs and nasty troll named Mangle in the room to the south of the plaza. Before you enter, make sure to heal up, buff up, and be ready for a fight. As soon as you step into this room you’ll be under attack. There are few Droaam guards and archers around the room but the troll Mangle should be your primary focus. He does not agro on you when you enter the room but will only a few paces in.

Heading into the north balcony area there are few more mobs and a gnoll war priest so be careful. The door they guard leads into the last part of this quest.

If you go straight once you are inside, you will come to the Mess Hall where you can rescue another guard. Inside this room is also the optional secret entrance into the palace. To close the secret entrance, head down inside where the hole is. Take out any mobs that come through and wait for the DM to tell you what is happening. In only couple moments the tunnel should collapse.

Head back out into the hall and go right. Take care of the archers. At this point you have a choice: turn left and go through the door to get revenge on the kobold that slammed the gate on you earlier. There will be a few mobs in here and the cocky little kobold. Hit the lever to open this route back up. This path will head back to the first shrine you ran into. But if you don’t care about the kobold, take another right to enter a room that has the last shine. Up the ladder in this room are a grate and a narrow passage that you can go through to get to the last room.

Make sure that you have all the optionals taken care of, all the guards freed, or anything else you want to do. When you head through the Narrow Opening there’s no going back, unless you have Dimension Door. There will be two stone guards in the final room so if that is all you have left to do, don’t worry about scouring the rest of the dungeon for these last two.

Now it’s time for the medusa fight! Make sure you are all buffed up, things are summoned and everything else that you’d like to do is done then head through the Narrow Passageway. This will drop you in the final room where you’ll be fighting them. Make sure you do not move until the whole party is through. Throw short term buffs out and then head towards Hesstess. This will activate the enemies. There are few guards in here that you can free. This will finish up the optional and they will help you fight Hesstess, the medusa.

When fighting the medusa, watch for her tells and her spells. The biggest tell is a high pitched noise, the rattling of her tail and then all the snakes come forward. This is her gaze attack, which can turn the tide of battle quickly. You want to get away as quick as you can to avoid being turned to stone. Run and jump, use Haste, Dodge, Tumble…whatever it takes to get away from the gaze. Use the pillars in the room to break line of sight from this attack. Memorize Stone to Flesh or use the Stone to Flesh salve to turn people back into flesh should they get caught in her gaze.

There are two switches in this room to use against her if you’d like to use some tactics. Hit both of these switches and a wall will slide open with the mirror on it. Once the mirror appears, go stand in front of it. The medusa will follow, see her gaze and turn to stone briefly. Yes she’ll have DR while she is stone, but you’ll be able to critical hit her on every swing! This is a great tactic and a lot of fun to use. Be aware that when you do hit these two switches it will also release several of her droaam minions into the room to back her up. However this is a small price to pay for such a cool and fun strategy. You might want to keep the person with the Stone to Flesh salve away from Hesstess in case someone does get turned to stone. When Hesstess dies, the quest is over. Make sure to finish off any of her minions and loot your chest.

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